Book Excerpts

Jake Tanner had pulled out the desk chair in his home office and started to sit when the front doorbell chimed in the blissful quiet. He would never take silence for granted again. A long breath swooshed from his lungs as he straightened and gripped his cane, then limped toward the foyer. Through the long, narrow window with beveled glass, he could make out his neighbor standing on the porch. Marcella Kime found a reason to see him at least a couple of times a week. He’d become her mission since he’d returned home to Cimarron City from serving in the military overseas. A few days earlier she’d jokingly told him she missed her grandson, and he would do just fine taking his place. He still wasn’t sure what to make of that statement. He had...

Standing at the gravesite, I stare at the coffin, my mom inside. Dead. I don’t understand. Why did she do it? Leave me and Dad?           I glance at my father next to me, tears running down his face, and my own stay clumped in my throat. An ache spreads through my whole body.            Memories of a few days before trying to wake up Mom send the terror through me all over again. I close my eyes, not wanting to remember, only to picture her sprawled on her bed, an empty bottle of pills next to her.            I rub my hands across my face, trying to scrub the image from my mind.            As the crowd thins, my aunt approaches Dad. “I have some ladies from the church lined up to bring food over. Are you sure you don’t want Bob and me at your house today? As...

Chapter One from Dangerous Pursuit by Margaret Daley As Samantha Prince leaned forward to straighten the books on a lower shelf, her long braid fell across her shoulder. Impatiently she flipped it back, considering again whether she should cut it short. Some people called her hair-color auburn; she called it red. Fiery-haired auburns were the heroines in the romance books she read. The color did not describe her. “Samantha, what do you think of this book? I’m going out of town again and need something to keep me warm at night,” a stylish businesswoman in her forties said. “A very good mystery, Mrs. Carson, but I wasn’t impressed with the main character. Not enough backbone to get out of all the scrapes he and the heroine got into.” “It sounds like more adventure...

Chapter One-Captive Hearts by Margaret Daley  “You lost them?” Kate Remington spun about to face her brother in his office.  Thomas shrugged. “I’ve searched everywhere. They aren’t here.” He swept his arm wide to indicate the pile of papers, magazines, and books on his large mahogany desk.  “How would you know? This place could definitely use some organization.”  “And you’re the one to do it?” Thomas laughed, his frown replaced by a gleam of amusement in his eyes. “I hate to break the bad news to you, but you’re the worst of the Remingtons when it comes to organization. Passed down through the family and when it got to you, there was none left.”  Kate narrowed her green eyes. “At least I don’t lose my photographs.”  “You aren’t going to forget this, are you?” ...

Abbey Harris climbed the stairs to the third floor at Cimarron City Hospital with Gabe, her black Lab, on a leash next to her. This was the only exercise she got all day. She worked long hours as a medical social worker at the hospital as well as volunteering to bring her dogs to see patients here to make them feel better. At the door to the third floor, Abbey knelt and rubbed her Lab behind his ears. “Gabe, we’ve got a little girl who needs your love and care. Are you ready?” He nudged her with his head, and she hugged him before standing and opening the door. The antiseptic smell and brightness from the fluorescent lights hit her as she stepped out onto the busy surgery floor in the middle of the day. A patient with a portable IV was strolling...

The wail of the siren pierced the air, drowning out the deafening sound the muffler was making. Tess Morgan looked back in the rearview mirror, groaned, and eased up on the accelerator. Parking on the side of the road, she saw the motorists passing her and thought about taking her daughter’s blankie and throwing it over her head to hide from their curious stares. The color in her cheeks reflected the red lights flashing behind her. “Why me? Why now?” she muttered while she watched the police officer step from his car. The officer strode toward her. His tall, beautifully proportioned frame struck her first, but that observation fled quickly to be replaced with a series of others—his fierce, commanding countenance; his casual way of moving that...